Talk:Charles W. La Follette
I still wonder about HT's intentions for this man. In OTL, Charles La Follette was an Indiana politician. The more famous branch of the family (Bobs Sr., Jr. and Phillip) came from Wisconsin. I have three hypotheses at this point: 1. HT butterflied Charles La Follette to Wisconsin. 2. HT butterflied Robert Jr. into Charles, like Douglas MacArthur became Daniel, and didn't know (or did) that there really was a Charles La Follette. 3. HT pulled Charles La Follette's name out of the hat, and just assumed he was from Wisconsin (which is probably what he did with Josephus Daniels). I tend to favor #3 the least, since La Follette proved pretty important to the series, in contrast to Daniels who became mostly a throwaway. I gotta think that HT did some homework on the guy since he used him as a war-time accidental president. TR 22:37, 19 November 2008 (UTC) :1 Jelay14 23:21, 19 November 2008 (UTC) ::1 or 3. I incline toward 3--LaFollette wasn't that important to the series. His leadership was so uninspired, anyone could have provided it. Turtle Fan 23:25, 19 November 2008 (UTC) :::He wasn't Jake Featherston, no, but he was a character in a prominent political position. HT seems to have spent some time and energy thinking about how he'd get La Follette in Powel House, anyway. TR 00:01, 20 November 2008 (UTC) ::::Daniels was in a prominent political position--GWI included enough US naval action to keep him better than a one-armed feather collector in a windstorm with poison ivy. Also, Patton was a prominent character whose geographical displacement was not addressed, maybe not even noticed; HT could make CLF an important character without knowing much about him. ::::I always thought La Follette was put in place by the author to prove the point that the US could win through teamwork without finding another Roosevelt. (That by the way is why I've never bought Mak's indignation at how CLF should have been reelected as the great conquering hero--Any observer could tell he didn't do much.) Turtle Fan 03:23, 20 November 2008 (UTC) I've just discovered something interesting: in IatD, LaFollette's middle initial is revealed to be 'W'. This, coupled with the fact that Prez LaFollette is from Wisconsin means he can't be the historical Charles La Follette (middle name was Marion) from Indiana. TR 20:13, 31 December 2008 (UTC) :Now why would he make someone up and give him the same name as a prominent historical contemporary? Turtle Fan 20:39, 31 December 2008 (UTC) :*shurgs* That's why I haven't actually edited the article yet. TR 20:41, 31 December 2008 (UTC) ::He might have gotten the middle initial wrong--I think he got Dornberger's wrong once. ::EDIT: Wait, never mind. It was I who misremembered Dornberger's middle name. Turtle Fan 23:43, 31 December 2008 (UTC) Picture We could put the picture back up. It does give a nice sense of completion to the article. And we could put "Charles La Follette" under it and be correct. I'm still not sold that HT made this dude up. I think it was just research carelessness. Turtle Fan 02:52, 6 February 2009 (UTC) :I don't think he made him up completely. I think he's Bob La Follette Jr with a different name. TR 15:44, 6 February 2009 (UTC) ::I know he did that one time, but it was only one instance among a bajillion use-historicals-or-make-someone up. Furthermore, when he did it to MacArthur he put a lot of thought into it, and by DttE he wasn't putting a lot of thought into anything. ::One other possibility is that it's meant to be some sort of amalgamation, like CS O'Brian. Those creep into his work fairly often. Turtle Fan 20:37, 6 February 2009 (UTC) :::La Follette first appeared in TVO. TR 21:07, 6 February 2009 (UTC) ::::By his full name? ::::HT was more thorough than SA then, but much less so than GW. Plenty of characters with half a name or none at all when in the past HT would almost definitely have dug up a historical Turtle Fan 00:44, 7 February 2009 (UTC) :::::Not as Charles W. La Follette, no, but we did learn he was from Wisconsin. TR 02:15, 7 February 2009 (UTC) ::::::Hmm. ::::::This character's origins are just a mess. Turtle Fan 03:20, 7 February 2009 (UTC) Proposal? We demoted him to fictional based on two details. Those details are both easily explainable as oversights, especially for so obscure a character and most especially considering some of the whoppers HT pulled off in the second half of the series. Might I request that we make some effort to ascertain from someone closer to HT than we are whether these were intentional ways of differentiating him from the historical Charles La Follette or mere failings of HT's research? Unfortunately the only person we could contact directly who qualifies as closer to HT than we are is that rat bastard Silver and I'd just as soon not remind him about this place now that he seems to have abandoned it and we've finally got his stench out of the upholstery. But what would happen if we brought up the question on Videssos? I hate to bring up a dead issue but, while the fact that two seperate (Take that Esperanto man!) details differentiate him from the real person could be telling, they're rather minor things over which to reverse long standing policy: The home state is an understandable mistake (Of course the La Follettes were all from Wisconsin!) given that HT very obviously did not bother looking up characters' home states for this series, and as for the middle initial, that's such a pissy little thing. I just feel the balance of evidence for changing the status of the article was not terribly convincing, and think we should try to see if there's a little more information available. We would leave it as is while our research is pending, of course. Turtle Fan 04:07, 19 February 2009 (UTC) :I've already sent the question to Videssos. TR 04:27, 19 February 2009 (UTC) ::Recently? No effect? Turtle Fan 11:39, 19 February 2009 (UTC) :::None as of yet. TR 15:34, 19 February 2009 (UTC) Funny to go back and re-read some of these formerly-pressing issues. I never did get a response from Silver on this matter. For what it's worth, I think we made the right call by re-labeling LaFollette as a fictional. TR 20:10, August 31, 2011 (UTC) Thirty-third POTUS ascends Huh, this is the first time I've noticed that every 33rd POTUS HT has given us is an ascendant one. I guess we need to get IfiMT resolved asap. I guess TWPE does hold open the possibility of an elected 33rd POTUS (I am counting on an isolationist in 1944 at this point, I really am). TR 22:07, September 7, 2011 (UTC) :There is also the obvious corallary that there are numerous 32nd POTUS who die in office. Again, the caveat of TWPE. TR 22:15, September 7, 2011 (UTC) Pictures (again) I've noticed TR removed a number of pictures from Lit. Comments today but not this one. Was that an oversight or did you think they added to the article? Personally, I wasn't happy with them stacked one below the other on the right side so fiddled with them to put them side, by side. However, I still am not happy with the effect and think they should probably be remove. ML4E (talk) 00:30, November 28, 2015 (UTC) :Oversight. We don't need them here. TR (talk) 00:37, November 28, 2015 (UTC) Very good. I just removed them based on this. ML4E (talk) 00:42, November 28, 2015 (UTC) It's Official Gizzi finally got around to asking a worthwhile question, and HT confirmed--Charlie is an alternate Bob Jr. TR (talk) 00:51, May 27, 2018 (UTC) :As an aside: when I learned that there is a real political pundit named John Gizzi, I assumed the poster at the crappy board was just some fan of the pundit and used his name for posting purposes. However, as I watch the real pundit John Gizzi's nonsense, I've come to conclude that the poster at the crappy board was the real, honest-to-goodness, John Gizzi. TR (talk) 02:35, May 27, 2018 (UTC) ::Wow, Wacky McWackface. Gizzi is speculating on a new CSA in 1963 led by George Wallace as the new President of the 13 seceding states. All over school integration. Never mind that Equality indicates that schools were integrated in the mid-1940s, shortly after the CSA surrendered. I wonder how long it will take HT to block him for idiocy. ML4E (talk) 18:13, May 27, 2018 (UTC) :::Wow. I've got to get in on watching this. Turtle Fan (talk) 01:34, May 28, 2018 (UTC)